View full sizeLaw enforcement officials raid Players, an internet cafe, Wednesday in Euclid. Six cafes in Northeast Ohio were raided with machines confiscated and assets seized. John Kuntz, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio-- The owner of a company that supplies software to many Internet cafes in Ohio targeted 24 state legislators for campaign contributions shortly before a critical vote affecting his industry, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said Friday.

McGinty released documents seized from the New Jersey company earlier this week that show the targets of the lobbying campaign included four House members, three of whom joined a minority voting against a bill that would effectively eliminate the state's 800 or so cafes. (See the documents in the viewers below)

The remaining 20 lawmakers are in the Republican-controlled Senate. The legislation has stalled there, to the dismay of cafe opponents, who believe the storefront businesses operate as illegal gambling parlors.

A March 5 email instructed a company representative to have Ohio cafe owners write $1,000 checks to the Senate Republican campaign committee and $250 checks to the campaigns of the House and Senate members. Whether the checks were delivered remains unclear because lawmakers have until July to report their latest contributions.

McGinty said the email account is controlled by Phillip Cornick, operator of VS2 Worldwide Communications. The prosecutor contends the company, based in Monmouth County, N.J., is the leader of a multi-state Internet gambling syndicate. Cornick and VS2 face racketeering and other gambling-related charges in Common Pleas Court.

Industry representatives say the cafes supplied by VS2 and other companies sell Internet or telephone time and, as a marketing tool, offer the chance to play slotslike computerized sweepstakes game. They say legislation passed last year guarantees the cafes can operate until June 30 while the state considers regulation.

Senators named in the email include Republican President Keith Faber, Democratic minority leader Eric Kearney and assistant minority leader, Joe Schiavoni, and six of the 11 members of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, which is handling the Internet caf legislation.

The Senate has indicated that it may not act until next year. In the meantime, Attorney General Mike DeWine has taken the position that the cafes are illegal and created a special unit that will help county prosecutors shut down the storefront businesses.

John McClelland, spokesman for the Senate majority, said the Senate quickly held a first hearing on the bill, and the party's caucus will get information on the raids next week. But he said the chamber will not be pushed into moving hastily on a complex issue.

"The Senate is a deliberative body," McClelland said. "We are taking the time we need to look at this issue of Internet cafes, and gaming as a whole, in depth."

Legislators reached Friday by The Plain Dealer said they were not certain why they were singled out, and most said they did not know without checking whether they had received contributions. Some said they were likely to vote for banning sweepstakes operations.

"I've made it clear to everyone, including my colleagues, that these things are illegal and should be shut down," said Sen. Shannon Jones, a Southwest Ohio Republican. "I hope for the opportunity to do just that in the Senate."

Similar regulations were proposed late last year in the House, only to die when the Senate failed to act by Dec. 31. Sen. Randy Gardner, a Republican from Bowling Green and member of the House at the time, voted for the bill and said he expected to do so again.

Sen. Capri Cafaro, a Youngstown-area Democrat, speculated that she was selected because she sits on a joint House-Senate committee that is examining the future of gaming in Ohio.

Cafaro said she could support regulation that allows cafes to continue operating but doesn't think it's appropriate to take money from the industry while the issue is pending. She said she returned a $500 check from a contributor with an Internet cafe connection and is holding on to another check to see whether the donor has ties.

"If they are attached to Internet cafes," she said, "I'll return that, too."

Rep. Michael Stinziano, a Columbus Democrat, said he was not aware of receiving any campaign contributions from Internet-cafe interests in the period leading up to the House vote on March 13. He said he voted against the bill to eliminate the industry because he believes the cafes are allowed under state law.

"If they are illegal gambling, shut them down and get them out of Ohio," he said. But he said that determination should be made by a court, not the legislature.

VS2 Worldwide Communications also was active in rounding up campaign contributions from cafe owners last September, according to another email seized this week from the company.

The email, from VS2 lobbyist David Robinson to what McGinty says is Cornick's account, stressed the need to prepare for separate Sept. 12 receptions with House and Senate Republicans at the Athletic Club of Columbus. The correspondence talks about organizing a "good crowd of 10 cafe owners" to attend, adding a draft invitation that said it was important for the group to wear dresses or suits and ties.

"We need to collect the fundraising checks as soon as we can," Robinson wrote. "The political folks are hoping we have checks at the Sept. 12 event."

The seized records do not indicate whether any checks were delivered.

Last week, after the Senate committee held up the House-backed regulation, Republican senators dined with representatives of the caef industry at a Columbus restaurant, according to a story that ran Sunday in the Columbus Dispatch. The get-together was moved from another restaurant after a Dispatch reporter showed up uninvited.

McClelland told The Plain Dealer that the meeting was for fact finding and that a Republican campaign committee paid for the senators' meals. He said the event had been on the senators' calendars for weeks.

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